maanantai 1. helmikuuta 2016

Coffee Break Series - Qlik Narratives tells stories of data

Time for another coffee. Lets look little closer what is meant by QlikNarratives.

QlikNarratives is an extension, stop. What is an extension?

QlikSense Extensions

"They create new ways to visualize data and enhance user input and interaction. They can integrate with other systems and visual libraries such as D3, add new selection objects and productivity components , and do it all using open standards such as HTML5, JavaScript and CSS"

Narratives for Qlik is...Narratives for Qlik is an extension for Qlik
Sense that transforms your visualizations into narratives. These narratives
accelerate your understanding of the data and uncover hidden key insights not
obvious in the visualizations alone.http://market.qlik.com/narratives-for-qlik.html

2. Move and unzip downloaded extension file to correct place. For me it says C:\Users\myname\Documents\Qlik\Sense\Extensions\Templates3. Now open QlikSense Desktop4. Open your Application. I will test it in Demo app called Consumer Sales and will create new sheet.

5.Give sheet Name .. for me it says Narratives

6.Open sheet and press edit

7.Create a chart or use existing one8.Add Narratives extension to sheet.

9.Activate added Narrative extension on sheet and press icon10.Clik the chart you want to write narrative about

Let's have a coffee and think about some of phases in Qlik application development.We can identify development process from very high level. There steps are...- Prepare prerequisites- Tasks before application development- Tasks during application development- Tasks after application development

Focus to the outputs in each steps. And the most import, think what value each output will add to the end users. "Back end - Front End... they all matters"

2. TASKS BEFORE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Here are some examples
Define requirements- One very critical task, right. Understand the direction, in order to do agile development. Communicate..communicate.Enable data- Define needed data and create integration to data sources. Design application structure

- Very common approach to design application structure is DAR concept. Create sheets for Dashboard, Analysis and Reports. Make it usable and understandable.

3. TASKS DURING APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Here are some examples
Use scripting best practices- Group, design, write, comment and reuse... debug.. ok..sometimes.Use dataload best practice- Consider e.g. following dataload types: Load From file, Inline load, Resident load, Incremental load, Binary load, Add/Replace load, Buffer loadUser Interface development best practices- Try to make sense, keep it clear, present things that are relevant, ask how others understand your visualizations
Test and publish things to review- Test data and visualizations and engage people by publishing application version to review and comment.
Development test and and production transfer- Plan test, do test, fix and be ready for production.

4. TASKS DURING APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Document- It is recommend to do documentation of applications. You can use ready build QlikApplication that describes application content and structure, but also create written documents Collect experiences and further development issues- User experiences are very valuable information to development applications further. More coffee... Yes